CRESCENT PARK, BuILT IN 1968 in Richmond, Calif., has a total of 378 rental units in 24 residen- tial buildings. The 25-acre complex also includes a resource center, maintenance building and several aundry facilities spread throughout the property. Its rooftops hold the nation’s largest affordable-housing solar installation, with approximately 900 kilowatts (k W) of capacity. The $8 million photovoltaic (PV)
system is designed to provide 60 to 80 percent of the community’s electrical needs and is anticipated to replace the generation of
roughly 14,000 tons of CO2 emissions over its lifetime.
By the close of this year,
Crescent Park will achieve
almost 20 percent of the
city of Richmond’s goal of 5
megawatts (MW) of power
from solar energy by 2010.
(Richmond is expected to achieve that goal this November — much
earlier than anticipated.)
EAH Housing ( eahhousing.org), a nonprofit affordable housing company, has owned and managed the property since 1994. In
2005, EAH began planning for an energy retrofit that would include
improved insulation, upgrades to windows, new appliances (
including furnaces and water heaters), new roofs, new interior flooring and
light fixtures outfitted with compact fluorescent lamps. At the start of
the project, EAH Housing asked the design team to reduce electrical
operating costs by using solar energy. Okamoto Saijo Architecture
( os-architecture.com) retained High Sun Engineering (sunengineer.
com) to conduct a feasibility analysis and prepare the design, which
was customized to Crescent Park’s existing buildings
Crescent Park posed some unique design challenges. Twelve of
the apartment buildings are designed with a crescent shape — hence
the name — with 14 townhouse units arranged around courtyards
forming an open circle. This means that the roof of each unit has
a different orientation relative to the sun. In assessing the power
By MARY MURTAGH
The Crescent Park
redevelopment team
Mary Murtagh is president and
CEO of EAH Housing.
Crescent Park is named
for its crescent-shaped
townhome rows, left.
The challenge in designing the solar arrays:
every roof has a unique
orientation. Only the
communal buildings
have conventional
pitched roofs, right.
OKAMOTO SAIJO ARCHITECTURE
FINANCING
Acquisition of Crescent Park
by EAH Housing
• Seller carryback financing
• Union Bank of California
• Limited Partner Equity:
National Equity Fund Inc.
(acquisition-based tax credits)
• General Partner Equity:
EAH Contra Costa Inc.
$50 Million Renovation:
• Union Bank of California
(via tax-exempt and taxable bonds
issued through the city of Richmond)
• Limited Partner Equity:
National Equity Fund Inc.
(renovation and energy-based
tax credits)
• California Solar Initiative (CSI) Rebates
• Income from operations
(residual receipts)
ARCHITECTS & CONTRACTORS
Architects:
• Okamoto Saijo Architecture
Solar Engineering:
• High Sun Engineering
General Contractor:
• West Coast Contractors
Solar Contractor:
• Sun Light & Power
Local Workforce Training:
• RichmondWorks
